The announcement of his appointment at 10 Downing Street on Monday 24 October coincided with the start of Divali, the highly symbolic ‘festival of lights’ which commemorates the victory of good over evil in the Hindu calendar. A concomitant that the press across the Channel has widely noted, qualifying it as sometimes “a small sign of fate”, sometimes “a wink” to Rishi Sunak’s personal beliefs. At 42, the elected Conservative is actually the first British head of government of Indian descent and … of the Hindu faith.
A religious affiliation he has never kept secret and to which he regularly alludes in public. “’British Indian’ is the category I tick off in the census. I am quintessentially British, Britain is my country but my religious and cultural heritage is Indian. My wife is Indian. I don’t hide the fact that I’m a Hindu,” said the politician, who was born in Southampton (southern England) in 1980, in the columns of the Indian daily Business Standard in 2015.
“Bhagavad Gita”
After his election to Parliament that same year, this eldest son of Indian immigrants – his grandparents, originally from the province of Punjab who had moved to British East Africa in the 1960s – had taken the oath in the plenary hall, on the Bhagavad Gita. The latter is the central part of the Sanskrit epic Mahâbhârata, which is considered to be the longest poem – almost four times the size of the Bible – ever written in human history.
On the other side of the channel, the ex-investment banker, who is married to a wealthy heiress – the couple’s fortune is estimated at more than 800 million euros – is said to be a “normal” practitioner. When he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Boris Johnson’s government in 2020, he was spotted lighting candles for Divali at his official residence at 11 Downing Street – a stone’s throw from where he now resides. “I was very proud of that moment, that I could do that on the steps of Downing Street. (Faith) gives me strength, meaning. She’s a part of me,” he confided to The Times newspaper on the subject in early 2022.
A very varied interreligious dialogue
Despite what his family history might suggest, Rishi Sunak takes a hard line on immigration. In particular, he intends to continue the policy of returning illegal migrants to Rwanda launched by Boris Johnson last May, and has promised to further tighten the status of asylum seekers in a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional society characterized by a highly diverse and interfaith dialogue . . “Although there may be some tension between the different traditions, the latter generally works well, between Christian, Sikh, Muslim and Hindu populations, often settled in the country for the last three for two or three generations,” Samata told Opatha La Croix, a 30-year-old Hindu who was born in the UK and still lives in London.
“The fact that Rishi Sunak has been able to assume this post is a positive signal that helps normalize the place of people of different backgrounds and religions than the white Christians historically present here. Within my (Hindu) community we are very proud! For me it also shows that the anti-discrimination campaigns have worked. That would have been difficult to imagine a generation earlier,” responds the young woman, whose parents settled in a posh suburb in the city in the mid-1980s.
“Living Bridge”
When Rishi Sunak’s appointment was announced, political reactions multiplied to pay tribute to his career. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi notably addressed a personal message to the new leader, without forgetting the religious holiday: “My warmest congratulations, Rishi Sunak. (…) I especially wish the “living bridge” of the British Indians a happy Divali as we transform our historic ties into a modern partnership. »